The Wisconsin Valley Radio Association is holding a joint Field Day exercise with the Merrill Amateur Radio Group on Sat, June 23rd through Sunday, June 24th. The event will take place at the Merrill MARC Center, 1100 MARC Drive in Merrill, just off of Highway 107. This is a high visibility location right next to the Merrill pool/splash pad, so we can expect a lot of drop ins. Lets put our best foot forward and provide a great demonstration on amateur radio!
Please remember this is a public location and everyone is responsible for clean up and keeping our location clean. Please notify event coordinators Joe KD9CJX or Stoney W9QJQ if you notice any damage.
Talk in frequencies
Repeater – KB9QJN 146.640 – PL 114.8 *Repeater is analog/P25 mix mode
On site – NEV-1 Simplex (146.400 MHz, PL 107.2)
Interested in Attending or have questions? Contact us
Schedule of Events
Some items need to be finalized, but here is a general outline of the day’s events:
Saturday, June 23
8am – Safety Meeting
8:30am – Tower setup
10:30am – Set up other antennas, trailers, etc
12:00pm – final station check
1pm – Field Day begins, can start making QSOs
2pm – VE Session
6pm – pot luck dinner (Michael KB9VBR and Joe KD9CJX will provide brats and burgers, bring a dish to pass)
7pm – educational program TBD
9pm – the LATE SHIFT begins (bring a thermos of coffee and work 40/80/160 as they go long!)
Sunday, June 24
8am – Camp Breakfast by Michael KB9VBR
12pm – begin tear down
3pm – End of Operations
We will go over everything in detail at the June meeting on Tuesday, June 5th.
Parking
All vehicles coming from Merrill will turn left onto MARC Dr. Overnight participants may park on the grass in the green rectangle next to the camper (gray rectangle). Handicapped parking is along the east side of MARC Dr. where the recreation trail crosses. There is ample parking behind the aquatic center as well.
Facilities
Merrill Parks & Rec have graciously allowed us to use the restroom facilities in the main building while it is open. Overnight we can use the camper or port-a-potty behind the building.
Public – Merrill Parks & Rec built a new pool/splash pad recently and is in the blue highlighted area. We can expect a lot of foot traffic from this. Additionally, Highway 107 is a busy corridor between Merrill and Tomahawk and there is a lot of traffic for Council Grounds State Park. Lets put our best foot forward and show everyone what amateur radio is all about! We will have an information table on site.
Testing session – There will be a VE Session at 2pm Saturday afternoon in the main tent. All ARRL registered VE should be available for this. We will put out the regular notifications to the public (nets, newspapers, TV, etc)